South Africa’s general election on 29 May 2024 produced long voting queues in cities, towns and rural areas. Polls officially closed at 9 p.m., but everyone already in line retained the right to vote; the final ballots were reportedly cast at around 3 a.m. The snaking lines revived memories of the country’s first all-race election in 1994.
The two elections did not carry identical meaning. In 1994, millions of Black South Africans voted for the first time. In 2024, the African National Congress faced the possibility of losing the parliamentary majority it had held for 30 years. The 9 p.m. deadline therefore did not end the queue. It marked the boundary protecting the vote of everyone who had reached it in time.